Childhood Seizures-Panayiotopoulos Syndrome

July 11, 2002

Hi List mates,

Panayiotopoulos syndrome is a common form of childhood epilepsy that

is new to me. One article says it accounts for 6% of the cases of

childhood seizure disorders. The full article is in Lancet, which I

do not get, but a link to another article is below the abstract. The

BMJ article says drugs are usually not needed. As with other

syndromes, like pallid breath holding spells, this is looking to be a

problem with autonomic nervous system regulation.

Zoe

Panayiotopoulos-type benign childhood occipital epilepsy: a

prospective study.

Caraballo R, Cersosimo R, Medina C, Fejerman N.

Hospital Nacional de Pediatria P. Garrahan, Buenos Aires,

Argentina. rcaraballo@...

OBJECTIVE: To characterize the clinical and EEG features of the

syndrome of benign childhood partial seizures with ictal vomiting and

EEG occipital spikes (Panayiotopoulos syndrome [PS]). METHODS:

Prospective study of children with normal general and neurologic

examinations who had seizures with ictal vomiting and EEG with

occipital spikes. RESULTS: From February 1990 to 1997, the authors

found 66 patients with PS and 145 children with benign childhood

epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes. Peak age at onset of PS was 5

years. Ictal deviation of the eyes and progression to generalized

seizures were common. One-third had partial status epilepticus.

During sleep, all had seizures. While awake, one-third also had

seizures. Five children with PS had concurrent symptoms of rolandic

epilepsy and another five developed rolandic seizures after remission

of PS. Prognosis was excellent: one-third had a single seizure, one-

half had two to five seizures, and only 4.5% had frequent seizures.

CONCLUSIONS: Panayiotopoulos-type benign childhood occipital epilepsy

is less common than benign childhood epilepsy with centrotemporal

spikes but is well defined and recognizable by clinical and EEG

features.

PMID: 11071484 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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